Your Driverless Ride Is Arriving

Outside a large warehouse in Pittsburgh, in an area along the Allegheny River that was once home to dozens of factories and foundries but now has shops and restaurants, I'm waiting for a different kind of technological revolution to arrive. I check my phone, look up, and notice it's already here. A white Ford Fusion, its roof bedazzled with futuristic--looking sensors, is idling nearby. Two people sit up front--one monitoring a computer, the other behind the wheel--but the car is in control. I hop in, press a button on a touch screen, and sit back as the self-driving Uber takes me for a ride. As we zip out onto the road toward downtown, the car stays neatly in its lane, threading deftly between an oncoming car and parked trucks that stick out into the street.